Govt Extends RBI Deputy Governor Michael Patra’s Term By One Year: Report

Deputy Governor Michael Patra oversees the important monetary policy function at the RBI. He is also a member of the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das

The central government has extended the tenure of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Michael Debabrata Patra for a period of one year. Michael Patra, whose three-year term is ending on January 14, was given an extension on Monday, reported PTI. 

The report cited sources saying that the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved Patra's re-appointment as the RBI's deputy governor for a further period of one year with effect from January 15. 

Deputy Governor Michael Patra oversees the important monetary policy function at the RBI. He is also a member of RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee which is headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das.

The RBI had four deputy governors. The three other deputy governors of the bank are M K Jain, M Rajeshwar Rao, and T Rabi Sankar. 

Patra, a career central banker, was first appointed as deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India in January 2020. He was Executive Director at the RBI before being appointed as deputy governor. Since 1985, he has worked in various positions at the RBI. 

As RBI’s Executive Director, he was a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the RBI, which is entrusted with the responsibility of monetary policy decision-making in India. 

Prior to that, he was the Principal Adviser of the Monetary Policy Department of the Reserve Bank of India between July 2012 and October 2014. He worked in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as Senior Advisor to Executive Director (India) from December 2008 to June 2012, when he actively engaged in the work of the IMF’s Executive Board through the period of the global financial crisis and the ongoing Euro area sovereign debt crisis. 

His book 'The Global Economic Crisis through an Indian looking glass' vividly captures this experience. He has also published papers in the areas of inflation, monetary policy, international trade, and finance, including exchange rates and the balance of payments. A Fellow of Harvard University where he undertook post-doctoral research in the area of financial stability, he has a Ph.D in Economics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.